Courtship Rituals
by Sireen Silverspinner
Summary: Maybe tentative title. Collaberation with Siobhan Terrace. Sasuke's a moron, Tenten's in shock. Neji's not happy, Sakura's distraught. Ah, love... sorta. [on hold, see profile]
1. Wait, WHAT?

**STANDARD DISCALIMERS APPLY. **(Naruto belongs to someone else. However, story is original.)

**Courtship Rituals**

_by Sireen Silverspinner and Siobhan Terrace_

**Note:** some basic Japanese included.

* * *

"I need to talk to you."

_Way to sound like a loser_, Sasuke immediately thought. But really, as long as he got his point across, he was good.

Tenten looked very surprised because, well, she was very surprised. Uchiha Sasuke had never even said so much as a hello to her before.

"O-Okay…" Tenten blinked, and then faced him. She gestured to indicate that she was listening. He tried to smile apologetically, but it came out more like a grimace of pain.

"Not here," he muttered. He abruptly turned and walked straight into the woods. It took a half a minute for Tenten to remember that she was supposed to follow him.

"Will this take long?" she called after him. She had been on her way to train with Neji. Hyuugas don't like to be kept waiting.

"…" Actually, Sasuke didn't know. _Would it?_ He certainly hoped not…

Tenten resigned herself to the fact that Sasuke was living up to his reputation of not talking much unless Naruto goaded him on or something.

They reached a clearing, and she waited patiently as he paused to make sure nobody was around.

"Well?" Tenten turned to him, hands on her hips. Still, she admitted grudgingly to herself. _He's…cute._

"Willy'go'ou'wime?" he mumbled.

"Sorry?"

He took a deep breath. "Will—you—go—_out_—with—me—?"

She stared. "You're…. Kidding…"

"_Iie_…" Now Sasuke looked at her expectantly.

"Um," Tenten swallowed, and then cleared her throat. "Why?"

Sasuke considered this question, but realized explaining himself wasn't an option. "…Why not?"

She raised an eyebrow at him. Though he was good at hiding how he felt, she could sometimes be very perceptive. And at that moment, her mad perception skills detected that he was not asking her out because he thought _she_ was cute.

Rather insulting, really.

She eyed him, giving him a glare that forced him to stare sullenly back at her. This went on, until she sighed and gave him a more unreadable look.

"If you're not going to tell me, I'll guess," she threatened. And she added, for good measure "And you'll _have_ to answer yes or no."

"…" He gave a non-comitial shrug.

"Correct me if I'm wrong. At this point of your life, your main agenda is to restore the Uchiha clan," Tenten said clearly so she would not repeat herself but quickly so it was painless. "And obviously, you can't go around asking the girls of Konoha to give you an heir. Though they probably would," she added kindly, and he grunted. "Don't worry, the rest of the girls out there are gonna be too star-struck by the fact that the Uchiha Sasuke is talking to them that they won't catch on to your clan restoration plot." She winked at him, and he scowled. "And really, you've never said so many words to me in one conversation. In fact, I don't think we've had a conversation before…"

"You're saying no?"

"I didn't say that."

"Well, how else will I talk to you if not on a—date?" he asked, tripping over the last word rather ungracefully.

"My only question is, why are you here asking me when you could ask Haruno-san?"

If her catching on quick and her wink didn't get to him, this certainly did. There was a deathly silence for a few moments, then he spoke flatly.

"Every other girl is a nuisance. You're the only one who never _really_ bothered me."

Tenten rolled her eyes. "I thought you were cute, does that count?" _I still do_, she laughs to herself.

"Thinking someone looks—" he coughed. "—_cute_ is different from proclaiming empty blind devotion at the top of your lungs."

"If you're talking about Lee—"

"—So if I think you're pretty, it's different from the way Lee would hound Sakura."

She stared at him, slightly disbelieving this time. Sasuke seemed to think he had said too much, and gave her an impatient kind of look.

Tenten decided to tease him.

"_You_ think I'm pretty?" she asked sweetly. His eyes narrowed and he turned around, on his way out. She laughed and jogged after him. "Alright, alright. Dinner tomorrow night."

He stopped, surprised. He eyed her suspiciously.

"Don't look at me like that, _you_ asked _me_, remember?" She pretended to be offended.

Sasuke decided not to take his chances.

"…I'll pick you up," he said finally. She gave him a quick smile.

"No promises, okay?"

She laughed as he scowled.

* * *

**Notes:**

As Tenten herself said, no promises guys. It's pretty experimental, so don't be too hard on us, okay?


	2. I'm A Girl, Too

**So I call Siobhan up and go, "Hana, I'm scared...". The reason is we got eight or nine reviews (i'm quite horrible at numbers) and I really wasn't sure how you guys would like it. Thankfully, there were no flames. A few questions, yes, but nothing was said to demean us. Siobhan can take flames rather well, but I'm quite sensitive. Ehe. And I'm supposed to be older.**

* * *

She didn't know herself why she said yes. The man was clearly a maniac, after all. _Clearly._

She grudgingly added to herself that his good looks probably blinded all of Konoha to that fact.

"You're distracted," Neji said accusingly.

Tenten blinked. They had been training for a while without real incident, so she had assumed that he didn't notice.

"Ah… sorry, Neji…" she said lamely. She didn't quite know how to explain…

He sighed. Tenten now remembered that Neji wouldn't ask her, he would just postpone training until the next night.

"Let's postpone training for tomorrow night," he said grimly, eyeing the shallow cuts he managed to give her. He hadn't even fought hard, and she was being an easy target.

"Sorry…" she muttered again. She pulled out a roll of bandages to wrap her arm. Truthfully, she didn't want to admit to anyone how much Sasuke affected her. She was not, repeat _repeat_, in love with him, but he certainly _affected_ her.

Not only because she thought he was attractive (who _didn't_?) but because he had been known to think that nobody was attractive. Worded out of pity for grammar teachers: _nobody_ was attractive to _Sasuke_ (as far as he let on) so him asking _her_ out was very flattering.

Neji rolled his eyes as she finished wrapping her arm. "_Careless_. Come back tomorrow night when you're less unfocused."

"Um… I can't come tomorrow night."

That caught him off guard. "Hn?"

"I'm going out to dinner." Tenten swallowed. "Um. On a date."

He stared at her. "Ah."

Tenten wished he would say something else. He was staring at her with his intense eyes, and she felt uncomfortable.

"Tomorrow _afternoon_, instead? Earlier?" she managed to ask.

"Hn. Fine."

"Great."

She swallowed. She knew what was coming next. She smiled sheepishly at him. He gave her a suspicious look.

"Is _this_ why you're so distracted?"

"Kind of…" She sat on the grass unexpectedly, fingering the damp blades. "I'm just a bit confused."

"Why?" Neji raised an eyebrow. She was eighteen years old. Though she trained more than socialized, she still had fairly good experience on (not _with_, Neji convinced himself) boys. A mere date shouldn't have gotten her this edgy.

Tenten suddenly realized that Neji wouldn't like her answer. "Um. Because it's Uchiha Sasuke. And…. You know."

Now he really stared at her. "_What_?"

"He asked me out for dinner," she muttered, more to herself as if just realizing the fact. "Ugh… what _have_ I done…"

"If you didn't want to, why'd you agree?" was all Neji could come up with. He unconsciously clenched his fists.

"Actually, I don't know. Maybe I'm curious to know what Uchiha Sasuke does on a date." She laughed. Neji frowned at the red tinge on her cheeks.

"_Why_ would he ask _you_…?"

Even Neji realized that it didn't come out right. Tenten put her hands on her hips.

"Is it _that_ unbelievable?"

He tried giving her what he thought was a bored look. Better yet, a _you're-being-childish_ look he often gave Lee, though of course it was never appreciated by the miniature Gai.

"It's not you, Tenten. It's Uchiha." Neji didn't need to say much more, they both knew this.

"I know, I know," Tenten said, dropping her affronted façade. "But… well, I don't see the harm."

Neji held back a snort. This was Uchiha Sasuke they were talking about.

"No, really, Tenten, why would he want to go on a date?"

She tried to glare at him, but he pointedly left out the words, "with you" in his question.

"Well…" Tenten hesitated, but then shrugged. "I kind of know why."

"And…?"

_Ooh, he's not going to like this_, she realized. But the mischievous side of her wanted to know his reaction, so she told him. His white eyes widened in shock, and then narrowed in… was it anger?

"And you _agreed_?"

The tone of his voice was outright disgusted. She was taken aback.

"To the _date_," she explained patiently, a little hurt by his quality. "_Not_ to bear him a child." Did he think she was some kind of—

"He asked you for that?" Neji's voice was flat now, disbelieving but irate.

"No, he asked me to a date and I guessed as to why. Obviously he wouldn't ask just for kicks. Normal people ask because they want to get to know each other better. Do _you_ think that's his reason? I doubt it."

All through the time she was talking, he was looking down at her with a frown. She stood up tentatively, but faced him squarely.

"I told him I wasn't making any promises, Neji. If that's what you're worried about."

He managed to hide the fact that she caught him off guard again. "I'm not worried. I'm _concerned_ that you're going out with Uchiha even if there's a really good chance you are his best candidate for a _wife_. It's crazy and asinine, considering you have never spoken more than two words to each other before."

Tenten looked rather indifferent. "I don't really see the problem," she said stubbornly.

Now Neji scowled. "You _like_ him."

She flinched. She managed to make two prodigies scowl at her in one day. She decided to cut back with her teasing.

"Neji, I don't even _know_ him."

"…You're really going through with this."

Tenten couldn't detect emotion in his voice. "Yes. But for heaven's sake, it's not like I plan to marry him."

"_He_ plans to marry _you_."

"True," she said, and she couldn't help but smile a bit. "It's actually more flattery than anything."

Neji gave her an incredulous look. "Flattery?" _You're not that shallow_, he silently added, because he didn't need to say it aloud.

"I'm still a girl," Tenten said delicately. "Not as feminine as Yamanaka or Haruno, fine. But female all the same."

"Hn." Neji didn't know how to reply to this. Did he ever… was it because he didn't…

"Well, I'm going now. Sorry about training, Neji. See you tomorrow."

He watched her go and suddenly had the urge to beat the crap out of something.

* * *

**Points to remember:**

**We are not asking for votes as to who ends up with who. This is already planned out.**

**This is still experimental, so we don't really know how good or bad it will end up. **

**Though this chapter came out pretty fast, there is no real update schedule. **


	3. Shikamaru and Ino

**Thought you were rid of us, huh? You thought wrong. **

* * *

Tenten didn't feel like going home yet.

Truthfully, she was feeling rather guilty that she had sprung her news on Neji like that.

_In the middle of a lousy training session, no less,_ she thought to herself, grimacing at the memory of her performance.

She made her way to a more remote part of the field, intending to sit down and think. Or possibly do some target practice, as she didn't want to sit still for too long.

Suddenly, she sensed someone.

"Eh… what are you doing here?" a voice asked her. She whirled around to see Nara Shikamaru eyeing her lazily.

"Target practice," she said. Then she frowned. "Don't you have a date with Ino-san?"

"Do I?"

Tenten gave him a wry smile, and sat beside him. "She won't be happy."

"Like I care. Women are so troublesome."

She raised an eyebrow at him. He was unapologetic.

"If we're so troublesome, why are you so whipped?" she challenged.

Shikamaru looked grumpy. "_Tch_. Just because she realized Uchiha wouldn't even look at her…" Then he stopped, and a shadow of a sneaky smile crept into his features, though he hid it well. "How about you? Jumped Hyuuga yet?"

"What!" _Ouch._ She must have really gotten him with her _whipped_ comment. "What the hell… no…"

"_Uh-huh_. It's taking you forever, just so you know."

"_What_!"

"What _what_? Are you, or are you not in love with Hyuuga?"

She was stricken into silence. She buried her face into her hands.

"_Mou_! I hate you…"

"Aa."

"What happened to your old fashioned courtesy to women thing? Don't tell me verbal abuse doesn't count. I feel sorry for Yamanaka."

"Aa."

"And just so you know, I _do_ have a date."

"Aa?" Shikamaru nearly sniggered. "So you _did_ jump him already?"

"No!" Tenten stood up. "Not with _him_."

Now Shikamaru was surprised. "It isn't with Hyuuga?" _Oh shit. Hyuuga wouldn't be in a good mood then…_

"Nope. Uchiha."

He stared. And then he whistled. Shikamaru didn't know whether to be impressed or… well, _mortified_.

"You do realize that what you're doing is a low blow to Hyuuga?"

"Neji? Huh? Why?"

He was once again struck with the clueless ness of women. Though most were good with feelings and such, they were sometimes as dense as… well, _men_. Shikamaru decided that the kunoichis were prone to such because all the teams were put with a single girl and two boys.

_Must have someone talk to Hokage-sama about this_, was his train of thought. _Tch, how troublesome_.

"Never mind." He looked up at the clouds again. This indicated that the conversation was over, since he had the don't-bother-me-because-I-like-the-clouds-better-than-you look.

Tenten sighed. "I think I'll just go home. Really, men are troublesome, too."

Shikamaru chose to ignore this.

* * *

Sakura had been on her third dish of ice cream when Ino arrived looking peeved. The two of them took one look at each other and understood the root of all problems: men.

Ino sat down in front of her friend (still so odd), grabbed a spoon, and shoved some remarkably delicious strawberry ice cream into her mouth.

"What Shikamaru do?" Sakura managed to mumble, pausing for a minute to check if her stomach was all right. Not that she cared. She made up her mind to provoke it a while back.

"Late again, the lazy ass," said Ino. "I swear… I got so pissed, I just left even if he was due to arrive soon enough."

Sakura prolonged her pause in eating, this time because she was studying Ino with a mix of admiration, amusement, and sadness.

"You really like him."

"Hmph."

"You _reeea_lly like him."

"_Hmph_." Ino ate faster.

"You _reeeallyyy_ like him."

Ino scowled at the ice cream, ceased spooning large portions into her mouth, and glared at Sakura.

"And you, Forehead Girl? I suppose you came to your senses about Sasuke-kun or something?"

Ino knew immediately that if she had not said the wrong thing, her tone still hit Sakura like a slap.

"I _wish_…"

Ino's eyes softened. She supposed Sakura had goaded her on about Shikamaru because—

"Uchiha did something to you?" she asked sharply.

Sakura laughed, and it took her a bit of willpower not to repeat her previous statement.

"You know, Ino-pig, you're really lucky. You came to your senses years ago."

"Yeah, well…" Ino grudgingly patted Sakura's hand. "After a while, it was more to get to argue with you than anything." She blinked, then added as an afterthought, "And it annoyed Shikamaru."

Sakura forced a laugh. "Anyway… truth is, I kind of thought… I mean…"

Ino watched her struggle for a while, inwardly growing concerned. "Come on, Sakura… Spit it out…"

"…I don't know." She said flatly. "I mean, I knew how many were after him… but I thought… ugh, I hoped… that _I _had the best chance." Her head dropped into her hands. "And it's not like I didn't take that chance. Ask Naruto, he'll tell you…"

"Whoa, wait, I'm at a loss here… back up, what do you mean _had_?"

Sakura told her. Ino's eyes grew wide.

"I know, it shocked me, too," Sakura said dryly, as Ino looked genuinely stunned.

"No…! But… _ah_… ugh…" Ino looked like she wanted more ice cream. "Where'd you hear that!"

"Naruto."

"That would make sense, but how is he so sure? And _why_ are you so keen to believe him?"

Sakura didn't seem to hear her. She talked like Ino didn't.

"You know…" Sakura went on. "Maybe I always knew I had a snowball's chance in hell. But… I kind of thought every other girl did too."

Ino frowned as she looked at Sakura. She decided that her problem was much more serious, even if she really wanted to kill Shikamaru. Sakura looked _that_ depressed.

"Well, it'll blow over," Ino said smoothly, trying to comfort her. "Actually, you'll see why I 'came to my senses', as you say, soon enough."

"That's just it!" she cried. "You got over him because you figured he'd be an ice cube forever. But he can't be, if _he_'s the one—"

"But look at it this way," Ino wisely interrupted. "It's just a date. I've gone on dates—"

"—To annoy Shikamaru," Sakura muttered.

Ino pointedly ignored her. "—and never considered some of them ever again. That could be the case."

"I don't think…"

"And if that's not the case," Ino deftly interrupted again. Damn Forehead Girl was evading all her consolations… "Then maybe he just wants to practice before going for the girl he really likes." She gave her a sneaky smile.

Sakura cracked a smile. "Though that's_ really_ unlikely, thanks anyway."

Ino spooned the last of the ice cream for herself. "Is it really that unlikely?"

"I fail to see your logic, Ino-pig."

"Well, I mean, he's the type who aims for perfection. How else to go for perfection but by training?" Ino paused, to check her grammar, but waved it off. "Erm. And really, we all expected him to go for you, sooner or later."

Once again Sakura cracked a smile. "You're right about him being a perfectionist. But, really, it's extremely unlike him to go for Tenten, me, or any girl for that matter. So what I'm wondering if it's the jealousy talking, or if I should…"

Ino studied her thoughtfully. While Uchiha wasn't the "Number One Ninja At Surprising People!", he still managed to show up to Naruto this time.

She also frowned because, she was pretty sure Sasuke made himself clear when he had rejected Ino quite some time ago. Sakura had no idea, of course, but she _should_ have by now.

"Rookie of the year or not, Forehead Girl, Sasuke still is still pretty dense." She set her spoon down and gave a half smile. "So are you."

* * *

Cookies to those who understand. Sorry if it's... eccentric.


End file.
